Philatelic tool



Nov. 2, 1954 J. F. G. CLARKE PHILATELIC TOOL Filed March 30, 1951 IN VE N TOR .lw mmmlwxe ATTORNEY-S United States Patent Ofiice 2,693,384 Patented Nov. 2, 1954 PHILATELIC TOOL John Frederick Gates Clarke, Falls Church, Va.

Application March 30, 1951, Serial No. 218,415

1 Claim. (Cl. 294-1) The present invention relates to a tool useful in the philatelic art. More particularly the invention relates to a portable tool or manipulable accessory for use in conjunction with philatelic albums and the like.

Stamp collections are usually preserved in albums made up of individual stamp carrying pages, bound or laced into volume form. The stamps are often inserted in pockets on each of the pages, positioned for display so that the collection may be inspected or exhibited by leafing through the album. The various methods of and devices for mounting the stamps are designed to provide maximum protection against injury to the stamps by preventing excessive contact and exposure and reducing the necessity of handling them. In addition, it is convenient to have an entire stamp collection which may be readily catalogued and instantly available in organized form.

In the albums available to stamp collectors various means for mounting or carrying the stamps on the album pages have been utilized. The present invention will be described in connection with a conventional style of album in which a particularly simple and effective mounting means is used to hold and display the stamps on the sheets of the album. The invention, however, is not limited to use by philatelists having an album containing pages of this particular type, but rather is useful generally whenever the problem of handling stamps or similar articles is encountered.

A stamp mounting means of the type used to illustrate the present invention comprises thin strips of opaque or transparent material, such as cellophane, glassine paper or the like, horizontally disposed and vertically spaced on the album page. page along the bottom edge of the strip and along the sides thereof to provide a transparent pocket-like retaining means for the stamps. The strips may either be fastened at several places throughout their length by means Each strip is fastened to the album of adhesive or stitching to make pockets for individual stamps, or they may be fastened only at the sides and/ or bottom, thereby making the one long pocket for receiving a plurality of stamps.

A large number of stamps may be displayed on each album page in these protective pockets, shielded from injurious exposure and contact.

To insert stamps into the protective pockets for the purpose of assembling or rearranging the collection, it is ordinarily necessary to manipulate the stamps with tweezers or the like in one hand while opening the pocket sufficiently to insert the stamp. In removing stamps from such pockets, tweezers or the like are similarly employed but it is not usually necessary to open the pocket in so doing. Because the thin transparent strip lying flat on the page is usually under some slight tension, it is difiicult to handle and it has been found that some means to lift the strip and open the pocket is desirable. If tweezers are used to manipulate the strip, as for instance to open the pocket, they may cause injury to the delicate material of which the strip is made and, in addition, the tweezers are cumbersome and are inadequate in other respects for this purpose. Moreover, extreme care should be exercised to prevent damage to the perforations on the stamps since the value of the stamps depends, in a large measure, on maintaining the stamps in as near perfect condition as possible.

With the album open to a page and lying flat on the work table, the delicate operation of arranging the stamps may be performed with consummate case when the tool of this invention is used. What has heretofore involved fatiguing labor is tirelessly accomplished, for my invention has been developed with the object in mind of eliminating the aforemention disadvantages.

The present invention has been developed to meet the problem by providing an easily manipulable hand tool for opening the transparent pocket. The tool comprises a relatively long handle and a plate-like blade disposed at one end of the handle at an acute angle with respect to the long axis of the handle. This tool may be conveniently carried and operated by one hand to lift the transparent strip slightly to open the pocket while a stamp is inserted in the pocket with the aid of tweezers or the like carried in the other hand.

By providing a peculiar and unique angular relation between the handle and blade, the tool can be carried and manipulated by one hand with the forearm and elbow of that arm resting on the work table. As the many operations incident to rearranging or assembling a collection are time consuming as well as tedious, designing the tool in this manner and thereby providing means whereby it is possible to efiiciently and easily work for long periods of time is an important aspect of the present invention.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an easily manipulable philatelic tool, particularly for use in assembling or rearranging a stamp collection in album form.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a philatelic tool which may be used in connection with mounting means on stamp album pages without injuring the stamp retaining pocket.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a philatelic tool having a plate-like blade which may be inserted to open a transparent stamp retaining pocket carried on a stamp album page and a handle angularly disposed with respect to the plane of the blade so the tool may be carried in one hand and manipulated more easily and efiiciently.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a simple inexpensive tool of the foregoing type which may be made of metal, plastic or other material, or any combination thereof, and which may be made in any one or more of several artistic and attractive designs.

Further objects will appear from the description when read in view of the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a plan view showing one embodiment of a philatelic tool embodying the teaching of this invention;

Fig. 2 is an illustration of the same embodiment of this invention in elevation;

Fig. 3 is an illustrative showing of the manner in which the embodiment of this invention, shown in Figs. 1 and 2, is utilized in connection with an album page having stamp mounting means of one conventional type;

Fig. 4 is an illustration of an alternative form for the blade used in the philatelic tool embodying the teaching of this invention shown in Figs. 1 to 3, inclusive;

Fig. 5 is an illustration of a second alternative form for the blade used in the philatelic tool embodying the teaching of this invention shown in Figs. 1 to 3, inclusive; and

Fig. 6 is an illustration of another alternative form for the blade used in the philatelic tool embodying the teaching of this invention shown in Figs. 1 to 3, inclusive.

In the embodiment shown in Figs. 1 to 3, inclusive, the philatelic tool 10 consists of a blade 11 provided with a handle 12.

As pointed out hereinbefore, it is an important aspect of the present invention to dispose the handle 12 in a peculiar and unique angular relationship with respect to the plane of blade 11 and with respect to the edge thereof to which the handle 12 is attached.

As the tool is designed to be held in the left hand while working on an open album lying flat on a work. table, this angular disposition, shown in Fig. 2, allows the worker to rest his arm on the table while inserting or removing stamps. Because frequently an entire page will be rearranged, which is time consuming as well as tedious labor, enabling the worker to rest his forearm and still manipulate the tool properly is of great advantage. This feature of the invention can also be incorporated in a tool designed to be held in the right hand (by a left-handed person) by reversing the relative positions of the handle and blade in a manner which will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

Blade 11 includes a plate 13 provided with an edge 14 which is substantially S-shape and an opposite edge 15 arcuately shaped so as to present a convex curve adjacent the concave curve of edge 14 to form a somewhat pointed tip portion 16. The illustratedconstruction provides a tapered region between straight edge 17 of the plate 13 and the tip 16 thereof for presenting a strip-engaging surface of variable width to pocket openings of different widths and depths. Preferably the blade 11 tapers to an edge as shown in Fig. 2 to facilitate insertion in the pocket as indicated above.

The handle 12 is fastened at 18 to the blade 11 and is angularly disposed with respect to the edge 17 of the blade 11, as shown in Fig. 1. In this preferred embodiment the angle A between the axis of handle 12 and the edge 17 of the blade is 60; however, this may be varied from between approximately 45 to approximately 75. The tool in the particular form disclosed is held (by a right-handed person) by the handle 12 in his left hand and is manipulated by inserting the plate 13 under 4 the strip, tip 16 foremost, to lift the strip slightly. Meanwhile, with the tweezers in the right hand, the operator may insert the stamp in the pocket. By having the handle disposed in the manner described, that portion of the strip on which he is working will always be in view as the tip 16 of the late 13 is unshielded by the handle 12 or the operators own hand. This feature of the invention may be incorporated in a tool designed to be held (by a left-handed person) in the right hand by reversing the relative angular relationship between the handle and the edge of the blade, if so desired.

It has been found desirable to have the handle disposed upwardly at an angle of approximately 15 with respect to the plane of the blade 13 as shown, for example, in Fig. 2; however, the angle may be varied from between approximately 10 to approximately 30 inasmuch as the intended advantage will still be present.

The advantage of a relatively acute angle, such as approximately 15 between the axis of the handle 12 and the plane of blade 13, lies in the fact that the operator may rest his forearm on the table or other support while manipulating the philatelists tool.

The handle 12 may be provided with a knurled or roughened grip portion 19 or it may be fashioned, in the manner shown in Fig. 3, so as to present individual finger-receiving cavities 21 to improve the grip and thereby facilitates operation.

The tool 10 is shown partially inserted beneath a page carried transparent strip 20, in Fig. 3. It is observed that the strip is contacted along the entire width of the body portion of the blade which, as pointed out above, eliminates the possibility of shredding or injuring the strip as had occurred heretofore. In operation, the blade is placed on the page adjacent the pocket opening and slid beneath the strip, whereupon with a lifting motion the pocket may be opened to allow entry or removal of a stamp.

Alternative constructionsfor the blade utilized in the philatelic tool embodying the teaching. of this invention are shown in Figs. 4-6.

In the form illustrated in Fig. 4, the blade 11a includes a plate 13a provided with an edge 14a of substantially V-shape and an opposite straight edge 15a. The blade may in the alternative also be constructed as shown in Fig. 5, with a body portion 13b smoothly tapering to a somewhat pointed tip 16b. In either of the alternative forms, they advantages, ofv ease inmanipulation and adaptability as regards pockets of varying widths and depths which have been discussed hereinbefore in connection with the preferred embodiment of the invention, disclosed in Figs. 1-3, are present.

A further alternative construction for the blade is shown in Fig. 6. The blade 11c, as shown in Fig. 6, may be of circular configuration with the handle 12(c) fastened at 13(c) to the plate portion 13(c). The additional advantage of this construction is that the philatelic tool may be used by either a right-handed or a left-handed person,.without reversing the angular relationship between the handle and the edge of the blade as is necessary with a blade of the form disclosed in Figs. 15.

Material of widely varying character may be utilized for the handle and blade, and the form and structure of both may be varied to some degree without departing from the spirit of the present invention. While the angular disposition of the handle relative to the blade has been described in some detail, the magnitude of the angular relationship has been set forth primarily for purposes of 'lustration: and is notintended to limit the invention to the precise dimensions indicated. However, it is important that the angle between the blade and the handle should not exceed approximately 45 when the tool is held in operable position by the user.

It is intended that the patent shall cover by suitable expression in the appended claim, whatever features of patentable novelty reside in the invention.

I claim:

A Philatelic tool for insertion in pocket-like retaining means for philatelic objects to facilitate insertion and removal of such objects comprising an elongated handle and a substantially planar blade member of tapering thickness joined to said handle at one end thereof, said blade member having its thickestportion at the point of juncture of said handle and said blade member and having a thinner portion at the edge of said blade member farthest from said point of juncture, the longitudinal axis of said handle being disposed at an acute angle of between approximately 10 and approximately 30 to the plane of said blade and. at an acute angle of between approximately 15 and approximately 45 to an axis extending from said point of juncture to said thinner portion of said blade member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 260,363 Boyle July 4, 1882 306,882 Watson Oct. 21, 1884 875,435 Johnston Dec. 31, 1907 1,082,570 Underwood Dec. 30, 1913 1,109,924 Hoffman et al. Sept. 8, 1914 1,171,212 Kinne Feb. 8, 1916 1,579,495 Stroud Apr. 6, 1926 1,696,561 Alexander Dec. 25, 1928 1,928,347 Cooley Sept. 26, 1933 1,940,107 Stichler Dec. 19, 1933 2,184,034 Broward Dec. 19, 1939 2,243,236 Walsh May 27, 1941 2,252,540 Archer Aug. 12, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 121,893 Great Britain Jan. 9, 1919 

